R.E.B.E.L.S. #1: I was a little concerned about DC going back to the well with this concept, especially one that was a bit goofy to begin with. L.E.G.I.O.N. served a purpose and was an actual acronym for the Licensed Extra Governmental Interstellar Operatives Network. When they relaunched the series as R.E.B.E.L.S. (Revolutionary Elite Brigade to Eradicate L.E.G.I.O.N. Supremacy) I continued to buy the book but rolled my eyes every time I saw the logo on the stands. I'm happy to say that despite all the things it had working against it, Tony Bedard and Andy Clark pulled off a really interesting issue. I felt like I just got out of the wayback machine and characters like Vril Dox and the Omega Men served some kind of purpose in the DCU. And the way Clark does his stuff, it reminded me of Gary Frank's work on the Action Legion storyline from a ways back. I'm definitely going to keep following this book. 
Patsy Walker: Hellcat #5: Another harmless and fun Marvel title. It goes without saying that this mini-series is a total throwaway disposable entertainment kind of package. It will not be considered a seminal work for the medium, there won't be any gritty moving picture crime epics to be made of this, and tomorrow I probably won't even linger too heavily on what transpired in these five issues, but I also can't say that there is anything inherently bad about it, either. The writing by Kathryn Immonen was kooky and fun (there's that word again), the artwork by David Lafuente was dynamic, colourful and easy on the eyes (kudos to colourists Dave and Natalie Lanphear for part of that) and at no point was I confused about the metatextual aspects of the story, nor was I thinking of just about everything else I could be doing instead of reading this comic book. So, lame review as this is, I give Hellcat a pass because it is the literary equivalent of eating a really yummy cookie.
Amazing Spider-Man #586: The secret origin of Menace revealed, finally! Because you demanded it!Well, the Marvel solicitation lies about the artist on this book because when I got home and opened her up, it was Barry Kitson and not John Romita, Jr. on the art chores, which knocks this one down a few notches for me on the happiness scale. Barry's a competent artist but I generally find his stuff to be bland and I think they went all digital on this one because it just looks wrong. Guggenheim's script was equally uninspired trying to inject drama and shock and surprise when really it was just a lot of standing around and talking about stuff that isn't really that interesting to begin with. By definition this is the Interlude episode of "Character Assassination" so they're even telling us they've put the good stuff on hold for a sec to do this other little thing over there, don't mind us. Dry is the only word to describe this.
Sorry to go out on such a bummer note but I really have to split. I'll try and have something beefier next week. Until then, take care and remember, comments are always welcome and encouraged. Until next week.
Later!
mike
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